opinion on plumbing return configuration and return setup

The 40 will give you lots of room. I made 3 areas in mine. skimmer and overflow from tank in the left side, return pump area with extra live rock in the center, and a refugium on the left.

 

ha, perfect. im totally ganking your refugium plans!

 

In my opinion that way too much velocity or flow through a sump, not to mention a Mag 18 wil consume gobs of power compared to a couple prop type powerheads like Koralias, Tunzes or Vortecs. I always suscribe to low flow through the sump so it has the ability to run a skimmer efficiently and to dissipate microbubbles, plus a refugium likes lower flows.
Make up the difference with a couple of well placed powerheads or a smaller closed loop pump which will not consume as much power due to lower head requirements.
I have a 100G display with a 30G long sump. The return pump is a Ocean Runner 3500 which runs at 58 measured watts on a Kill A Watt meter. I also have a closed loop using an identical pump through a Ocean Motions Squirt two way all of which is mounted externally so little real estate in the tank is taken up and finally two K4 Koralias in the back corners, one with a modified prop for more flow. All these together draw almost the identical watts of your single Mag and I have many times more flow in a better random pattern.

 

AZ
Not to change the subject or anything but do you use the flow aiming adapters on the ends of your Koralias or use without them? I'm blowing matter all over my tank and also the water movement is causing open areas in my sand bed from flow from the Hydors.

 

I find I don't need them. I have them down several inches and aimed slighty up towards the surface so they do not cause any problems with the sand bed, which is 330 lbs of Southdown sugar sized sand by the way and does not get disturbed much at all. My closed loop nozzles cause more disturbance than the K4's so I may switch to the fan type Loc Line nozzles to dissipate the flow better.

 

yeah, i guess i didnt really understand and have been misinterpreting the 'flow'. what ive learned here is that i need to govern the tank turnover rate more so with display-tank powerheads than the return pump itself, and keep a low flow through the sump.

what would be a good flow? 500gph? 800gph? fuge flow can be seperate than my sump flow governed with valves.... so 200-400gph?

 

Most people will tell you 3 to 5x your display tanks volume for sump flow.

 

Obviously, you want you want your tank water cycled so much... but ultimately, your skimmer will only process what it processes. Anything over that is just water moving. Generally no skimmer manufacturer states how much skimmers can process. I think my K2 does 300-400gph. When I had a Mag 7 on my EV-120, AquaC said probably 300 gph.

So the more water you move through the sump, does not really get it skimmed any more. If you provided less then it would be like recirculating it.....more and it just bypassing it.

A fuge does not need much.... 100gph. There are some that belive in high flow to tumble cheato. Highest I've seen mentioned is 40x fuge volume. At 10 gallons that is around 400gph. So in general.... you are talking as little as 400gph total.... all the way up to 1000gph. That would be a crap ton. On my 90g I probably have around 600gph. My Ehiem 1262 is throttled back some.

 

good to know. i think im finally getting it now. 5-6x turnover in my tank is what ill shoot for from the return pump itself. 35-40x turnover in the display-tank via mp40w and koralias to handle any dead spots.

so 75x5=375gph. very small output on the return. totally do not need a mag12+ awesome to know considering i was going to buy a 2000GPH pump before lol. i have this problem with over-engineering things when i dont know all the specifics. thanks all for your ongoing help in my first reef build.

ill check out pumps spec'd around 1000GPH for the case where i decide to run a ev-120 off of the return pump, or 500GPH for a straight return pump if i decide to go with a needle style skimmer.

use a mp40w (rated upto 5000GPH at 100% output) on the left of the tank and koralias on the right to handle any dead spots. the nozzle from the return pump and any koralias should be shooting in the opposing direction of the mp40w from the right side of the tank to create a nice erratic flow pattern. ill have the mp40w on reefcrest mode at around 50%-60% of its full capability based on others using this on a 75gal. i might check into how mp20's work with one another, because for another $100 i could just buy two mp20's instead of one mp40.

im going to aim for the ability to have 50-60x turnover in the DT for SPS, 5x turnover through the sump, and 3x turnover in the fuge (currently holds 6 gal of water) so ill need 18-20GPH flow through there which ill govern with the valve i have in place now.

the new fuge build will have more volume and allow for more flow. till then im running with this setup.

 

Sounds good. Give AquaC a call. They were very helpful when I spoke to them. They will tell you how much it will process. If you just stick a pump on it's easy, but if you run if off a return pump, perhaps they can tell you better hoe to set it up and the flow you want.

It's my opinion that tank turn over rates are throw backs to older filter. Even if you set your skimmer in your display tank.... it's only going to do what it can do..... so there is no real "tank turn over rate" for the skimmer that is going to mean anything.

Also, think of the fuge as separate. It is just sitting there connected to your system, but it has it's own requirements. So say tank turn over rate, but just think of fuge turn over rate. 10x actual water volume of the fuge. Many people run theirs that slow, so you can start there and bump it up if you think it needs more. But Again, "turning over" the main tank X amount of times through the fuge means nothing to the main tank.